It's not well known that the congregation of the First African Baptist Church in Richmond donated approximately $40 towards Irish Famine Relief in 1847. Around 2,000 members of the congregation were slaves, and only 150 were free.

Instead of thanking this impoverished and enslaved community for their generosity, the Irish American Boston Pilot newspaper used this story to mock British philanthropy and essentially argue that it was proof that the Irish had it “worse” than slaves.

Thirteen years later the same newspaper argued that the abolition of slavery would be a terrible mistake as "by overstocking the market of labor [it would] do incalculable injury to white hands.”

United States Supreme Court: "A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a "citizen" within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States." (1857)

U.S. Supreme Court: “If the applicant is a white person within the meaning of this section he is entitled to naturalization; otherwise not.” (1923)

“[We do not] suggest the slightest question of racial superiority or inferiority. What we suggest is merely racial difference, and it is of such character and extent that the great body of our people instinctively recognize it and reject the thought of assimilation.”